TAX BICYCLES?: Republican Rep wants to due to green house gases

What a douchebag...

A Washington State Representative who serves as a ranking republican on the State Transportation Committee may be an unlikely proponent of a tax that would require everyone who buys a bike for more than $500 to pay a $25 fee.

Holy fack, a politician would actually put that in writing With that argument, joggers & pedestrians should be paying for their use of sidewalks and park paths AND especially if they jog on the roads. Maybe a 25 dollar tax on all shoes over $25.00.

I'm not familiar with the US tax systems, but here in in Canada, it is your land tax that pays for maintenance of the municipal roads, pathways, etc., gas tax pays for provincial highways.

What a backwards way of thinking.

While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions. - Stephen R. Covey.

Republican Rep wants to tax bicycles due to green house gases

If passed, this may prove detrimental to bike shops around the state. There will no doubt be a lot of consumers trying to circumvent this extra $25, so we may see a lot more people buying their bikes online where the law would be difficult to enforce.

Sounds maybe like yet another pol touting his clear lack of background in science and/or critical thinking in order to pander to those (I'm guessing) he presumes is his similarly thought-challenged base?

Bill

“You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing...We can make the best or the worst of it."

WA State wants to tax hybrid cars $100 a year due to decreased revenue from gas taxes. This new tax on bikes hasn't been fully justified. With the cycling community in WA, I'm sure it will get killed off.

WA State wants to tax hybrid cars $100 a year due to decreased revenue from gas taxes. This new tax on bikes hasn't been fully justified. With the cycling community in WA, I'm sure it will get killed off.

At the height of the drought here last summer our city imposed serious water restrictions. Revenues fell so they gave us a huge price increase because we used less water. This fall, after trees and lawns were beyond redemption, they relaxed the restrictions somewhat. Price is still up.

This bicycle thing is just a matter of whose ox is getting gored. It's a stupid proposal but not any more stupid than some of the proposals we have been arguing about in the contentious threads.

A Washington State Representative who serves as a ranking republican on the State Transportation Committee may be an unlikely proponent of a tax that would require everyone who buys a bike for more than $500 to pay a $25 fee.

So what do you call a person that posts only part of the story and makes it misleading? If you read the email, he is using the the same old class warfare argument. Car owners pay for maintaining roads including bike lanes through taxes and cyclists don't. Yep, there isn't a single cyclist on the face of the planet that doesn't also owns a car. F*cking idiotic argument but isn't that what politician do? Make everything based on some kind of class warfare? "It's not fare. They are not paying their fare share". Where have I heard that one before?

All this is a money grab from cyclists to help maintain the roads. Later in his email he; he does go on about the idiotic statement about cyclists polluting as the go because of increased heart rate and respiration. This is what happens when you legalize pot. You get people who think like this.

As a former Washingtonian, this has been circlulating among the cycling community there. This kind of shoot-from-the-hip proposal -- usually some version of "bicycles don't pay their fair share!" -- comes up every couple of years. Thankfully most people from both sides of the aisle realise this isn't that great of an idea.

The amount that one could effectively raise from tax bicycles would likely be less than the cost of administering such a program, and, the external benefits of cycling are so high, I think it'd be a beggary thyself situation.

But, to take the "more CO2 from breathing" argument on its face -- wow. Does anyone know what the CO2 footprint per mile of a PERSON is?

I'd have to find a Real Scientist to run the numbers, but let's presume that each cyclist, using more CO2 as they breathe while the ride for pure enjoyment, exercise, etc, replaces a single car trip per month, of only 2 miles each way, with cycling.

My similarly off-the-cuff guess is that this one twenty minute replacement trip would make up for the extra CO2 from BREATHING many times over, and that is presuming the rider would otherwise sit on the couch and do no other exercise.

A Washington State Representative who serves as a ranking republican on the State Transportation Committee may be an unlikely proponent of a tax that would require everyone who buys a bike for more than $500 to pay a $25 fee.